Hebridean Inspiration.

Where does a girl inspired by the Highlands and Islands of Scotland go on holiday?

The Highlands and Islands of course!

Well actually we usually go to the west of Ireland but this year we went to the Isle of Harris via Arisaig and Skye.

Fantastic.

We pitched our tent here at Horgabost on the stunning west side of Harris. 

A few steps over the dunes from the door of the tent brought me to this spot where I loved to sit and drink my coffee first thing.

 You know you have come to the right place on holiday when the sea is your favourite shade of turquoise.....

... and the flowers and shells are your favourite shade of mauvey purple!

I read one guide book describe this place as paradise refrigerated .... they were not wrong! I still went in the sea though. It wasn't as cold as it looked and wasn't the coldest water I've ever swum in either. I loved it. So clear and fresh.

As you can imagine I was very excited about the prospect of buying some Harris Tweed to include in my work. 

These are cones of Harris wool in the weavers shed at Carloway on Lewis.

Norman Mackenzie weaves his tweed in the traditional manner on a Hattersley single width loom. There are only a handful of these particular looms still working on the Island producing this famous cloth.

I bought a metre of this glorious purple from Norman's sister Margaret who was holding the fort the day we visited. She kindly gave me a few labels to use on any bigger finished pieces. Not sure what I'll do with this piece but it will have to be something special!

There are SO many different colours and patterns of tweed to choose from and I nearly passed out with excitement when we walked into an enormous shed full of tweed next to The Tweed Shop at Tarbert.

I managed to get my hands on various bits and pieces on our travels around the Island and have already started playing around with it.

These bird brooches are a mixture of tweed and felt. The felt areas are hand dyed merino with hand dyed silk fibres and I feel that they compliment the tweeds well.

The pendants are again a combination of tweed and felt with a little bit of stitch for added detail.

I added some beads to this heart as I felt it needed just that little bit extra silver across the middle. This magenta tweed is extra thick and fuzzy and looks a bit like felt already.

On one of our days out we visited this brand new Gallery and Shop at Seilebost.

 I happened to be wearing one of my square textile and resin pendants which caught the eye of Artist owner Lesley Wiseman. Although all the paintings in the gallery are by Artists living on the Islands, the crafts and gifts are by artists from further afield, inspired by the area. My textile sea pendants are certainly inspired by the beautiful turquoise hebridean sea and so Lesley bought some from me there and then to sell in this fabulous new venue! Lesley bought some sheep pendants too and I hope to send some cards soon as well.

Just look at the location!

That's the gallery, the bigger of the two white buildings on the left.

Harris Huts and Houses.

The east side of Harris is a total contrast to the machair and endless beaches on the west. It is a coastline of little coves and a landscape that puts you in mind of the what the moon must be like. All rugged and barren. This side of the island is well populated though with lots of interesting artists and makers to visit. We took a drive up what is locally known as The Golden Road (because it cost so much to build) and I was enthralled by all the cute little huts and houses dotted about.

If you thought those red roofed cottages so prevalent in my work only existed in my imagination think again!

I'll be getting on with lots of new work now that our children are back to school and I am so enthused with new inspiration.

Don't forget that if you are local to Fife you can find me and my work at Muddy Boots Farm Shop and Cafe, Balmalcolm this Saturday 20th August.

As well as all my usual textile art and craft I will have these new cards for sale.

They are all prints of some of my favourite felt pieces. There are nine designs to choose from and cost £2.50 each or 5 for £10. They have been selling so well already that I am out of one or two designs already. I have ordered more which should be here by next Wednesday. If you  would like to order some just drop me a line at aileenclarkecrafts@yahoo.com

Wildfire

At this time of year our hillsides and roadsides here in Scotland are swathed with Rosebay Willowherb making beautiful patches of pink everywhere we look. I can see lots of it from my window here in the cottage.  

 

This little cottage sits at the end of our track and looks adorable no matter what the season. I day dream about doing it up as a craft bothy.

I have used it loosely as inspiration for this piece below.

 

Willowherb Cottage £30

Available in my Etsy Shop now

I thought it would be nice to feature some items from other crafters inspired by Rosebay Willowherb so I put together this Treasury on Etsy.

At first I struggled to find items by other people until I found out that Willowherb is called Fireweed in the USA. We call it Wildfire here in Scotland.
It turns out it grows in abundance in Alaska and I found this great shop making all sorts of interesting things with it including tea and jam!
Salmonberry Origins


I also listed these two new pieces featuring a similar shade of pink to Wildfire.

Textile Leaf Pendant £20

Textile Leaf Brooch £12

And talking of Wildfire, doesn't this look like fire in the sky!

 

Don't forget that you can find me and my work at Muddy Boots Farm Shop and Cafe on Saturday 20th August. Scroll to the bottom of my last post for a map. Muddy Boots is located on the main road at Balmalcolm.

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

5.30am on the north east coast of Scotland.

The promise of a lovely sunny day.

We didn't spend all of our holiday sitting on wind swept beaches. Having children aged 6 and 13 can be quite a challenge on holiday as they both like doing different things. The beach is usually a good option for both but some days it's nice to go and find other things to do. 

Scotland is great for museums and places of interest.

While my husband took our daughter to the 'Tain Through Time Museum' in Tain, I took my son to visit an old friend of mine from college. 

Brodie Nairn and his partner Nicola Burns run the contemporary glass studio 'Glasstorm' in Tain.

It was great to catch up with Brodie again. We haven't seen each other in nearly 20 years!

My son and I were delighted to be able to watch Brodie at work and he explained to us about his latest commission pieces. 

You can follow this link to see some superb glass work and read more about the Glasstorm Studio.

I also met Fiona Byrne who works at Glasstorm. Fi makes her own glass jewellry and has an Etsy shop which you can visit here 

Below is one of my faves from her shop.

'Summer Anchor Pendant' by FiFi Loves Jewellery

Another highlight of the holiday was visiting the lovely village of Dornoch.

Lovely cottages in warm sandstone with beautiful gardens.

A castle on the main street which is now a hotel.

Ahh.... the relaxing scent of summer roses.

And where did this inviting door lead to?

 

 A peaceful and enchanting walled garden.

It was so nice to just amble around and wander in and out of some lovely shops.

Since we got back from holiday I have been busy making small framed felt landscapes and felt bookmarks for Room 15 in Oban.

Today would have been a good day to be in Oban. They set the World Record for the longest 'Strip The Willow' ceilidh dance this afternoon! Some german tourists apparently thought they were going to witness some nudity!

I have also had a couple of orders for 'Highland Coo' pictures.

Not difficult to find the inspiration with a whole herd living next door.

I went out to lock the shed the other night and heard lots of munching and snuffling going on behind the hedge.

I turned round to see this little cutie peeking through.

Just look at the length of those lashes!

It's easy to order something from me. Just send me an email telling me what you are looking for and we can work out something unique to suit your budget.

aileenclarkecrafts@tiscali.co.uk

'Wee Chubby Coo'

SOLD but you can order similar.

Last but not least on my list of things to share is that despite the dreadfully wet weather we've had for the last while, it dried up enough to go out picking flowers this evening.

These are all from our garden or the verges beside the farm track.

Can't wait for the honeysuckle to come out and fill the house with it's heavenly scent. I also can't wait for the sun to come out again....maybe tomorrow?

Doorways and Shoreways

Just back from a weeks holiday around the Moray, Findhorn, Dornoch and Embo areas of Scotland. Very much a beach holiday although we went from basking in bright sunshine in summer clothes to wrapping up in woolly jumpers and hats.

We stumbled across quite a few interesting doorways which I thought I might use as inspiration for a textile piece.

I love getting in the sea at every opportunity and a bargain buy of a wet suit for a fiver at a car boot sale meant getting a lot less chilly. The invasion of these squishy jelly fish though put us off going in the sea up at Embo but we enjoyed a good bit of body boarding at Findhorn.

The beaches up there are glorious and endless with hardly anyone on them. I took a walk at 7.30 one morning and apart from a few joggers and dog walkers, the beach was deserted. As you can imagine, I soaked up lots of inspiration for my work. The dunes at Findhorn are fascinating with beautiful purple heather growing in profusion alongside low growing rosa rugosa  and pink sea thrift.

This is a very quick sketch I did with my daughters paints after my early morning walk. I'm hoping to interpret this in textile using the embellisher machine sometime this week.

If you are a new visitor to my web page here, you might like to keep up with what's new from me on Facebook. It's always lovely to hear from people  both here and abroad so please feel free to leave a comment.

 

....And That Was June.

June has been a very productive month for me and it was rounded off nicely with the street fair at Falkland last weekend. Here is the view over to the Lomond Hills from near Freuchie.

Funnily enough, I made this picture from my imagination the day before I took the photo!

 

A cottage, some sheep and a bit of artistic license with the size of the poppies and you'd think I'd used that scene as inspiration.

 Me and my wee stall.

The street fair went well and was very enjoyable to do. 

My Mum supplied us with the tartan bunting.

 Mum, Fynn and Kirsty

I shared a stall with Kirsty of Falkland Felts. We had great fun doing a stall together. It is something we day dreamed about doing 15 years ago when we were young, free and single. We were going to get a van and travel all summer doing stalls at festivals then head for the sun in the winter. Then life and children took over and this is the first of us actually doing a stall together!

Kirsty's on-the-spot workshop making felt soap rocks was a great success.

Children and adults alike had a go and went away delighted with their creations.

 For anyone unfamiliar with the process, you take a bit of soap, in this case a piece shaped like a big pebble, and cover it with felt. 

You wrap some dry felting fibres around it to the point where you can't see any soap anymore. Holding the fluff and soap carefully in both hands, you dip it into warm water and start to squeeze gently.

 Keep squeezing until the fibres start to stick together, then start rubbing the ball of soap and fibres around in your hands.

It gets all sudsy as the fibres felt together and once you are done you have a soap wearing a woolly jumper that you can use as a normal hand soap or a bathroom ornament.

Here are some of Kirsty's along side some real rocks. You can make them any colour you want. The children made some fantastic rainbow ones.

 I have made a lot of new pieces this month from brooches and pendants to landscapes and bookmarks. I have a constant supply of my work going out to four main stockists as well as keeping a variety of work available through my online shops.

 These new sheep cards and mixed media pendants are going into production in between doing stuff with the children during the holidays and going camping.

One of my favourite things about June is the flowers.

It's probably the only time in the year when I miss my job as a florist. 

Although you can generally buy most flowers all year round now, my favourites are at their peak at this time of year as this is their natural growing season.

My Mum and Hugh had their 5th wedding anniversary this month and we gave them these. My husband is great at buying flowers. He chooses and few bunches of this and that then I get some greenery from the garden, my trusty roll of cellophane, a big piece of ribbon and transform them into a presentable bouquet.

 

Just look at those scented stock! Absolutely heavenly! Mum was delighted with them and they looked even better in her big Azteca glass jug.

Hope everyone has great plans for the summer holidays. I was looking at video footage from our trip to Ireland last year. I felt a pang of regret that we are not going this year when I saw all the sunny shots, then felt glad we have decided not to go when I watched a clip taken in the porch of the tent with the rain pouring and low cloud as far as the eye can see. I'm sure we will get just as rained on this year but we won't have gone so far for the privilege!

A Bird In The Hand

This week I'm working on some more new brooches. I've always liked bird shaped brooches and have made many over the years. 

The garden flowers I'm using as props are being very obliging with their matching colours.

I really enjoyed sitting in the shed doing a little sewing at the weekend. I'm delighted that these Vintage Table Linens have found a perfect home. Don't the colours go so well!

I find it very time consuming hand stitching beads and brooch bars but it is also very enjoyable when I can do it sitting in my little garden hideaway. 

 

Here are some finished leaf brooches. I have some listed in both my Online Shops.

 

I'm very careful when I'm sewing outside not to let any bits of thread fly off in the wind. I found this little fellow stuck in a Cypress tree and couldn't really understand why. I had to get a chair and a broom and very carefully pull the branch down low enough to see how I could help. Turned out there was a fine thread tangled in the tree and caught round the birds ankle. I managed to free him easily enough and snip the thread off without harm to the bird. It wasn't a sewing thread, more like a string fibre or something but even so, I'll keep a little bin beside me while I work for all those snippets of thread and wool.

There are a whole gang of Goldfinch enjoying all the wild thistle seed at the side of the farm track near our cottage. It's lovely to see them flit from stem to stem, bush to bush then fly off in a flock over the field.

 

A Passion For Pink!

I love it when new supplies arrive.

These designs all started with the leaf shape in the centre of the square pendant. I had made a blue version of this in March with a cuff to match and I wanted to see how the design would look in these beautiful fuchsia shades.

Next came the heart pendant. It has a lovely puffy effect as it is two thin layers of felt stitched together.

The matching cuff is incredibly soft. It closes with two buttons layered together as I liked the shimmery effect of the top button but it wasn't big enough on it's own.

 I had a leaf shaped template in my drawer of bits and pieces from when I was making fused fabric leaf pendants last year. I had picked a beach leaf off the hedge while walking home one day and based a few designs on it. When I cut this leaf out of the felt, one of the smaller leaves that I had cut for the square pendant fell onto the big one and hey presto! another design was born.

I have made these as brooches but they could also be fitted with a jump ring and worn as pendants.

The little pink daisy on the green background in the top photo was a bit of fun. I had some felt flower shapes cut from commercial felt for me by a fellow folksy seller and she kindly gave me card board cut outs of the four different daisy shapes that I ordered. The teeniest one just happens to fit within the square pendant tray and I couldn't resist the pink on green combination. A shiny shell bead makes up the centre and matches the background green perfectly.

I also have plenty of heart shaped templates lying around and this brooch is reminiscent of the hanging hearts I used to make. Again, this heart has a lovely 3D puffiness due to the layers being stitched together.

You can find some of these new pieces in my Etsy shop and I'll be adding more as and when I get them individually photographed. Thankfully the sun is shining today so I may have to just sit outside sewing on beads and brooch bars!